VolunTourism And The U.S. National Parks
The Ypartnership/Yankelovich 2009 National MONITOR (SM) came out recently with data regarding the preferences for U.S. destinations according to U.S. travelers. At the top of the chart, in terms of desired destinations, were the U.S. National Parks – roughly two of every three travelers are “very/extremely interested in visiting National Parks (66%),” according to the press release from Ypartnership.
The U.S. National Parks have been connected to VolunTourism for some time. Tauck World Discovery (TWD) launched a partnership with Yellowstone National Park in 2003 and over the course of six years brought an estimated 10,000 voluntourists through the Park. Earlier this year, TWD redirected its efforts to Grand Teton National Park. Glacier National Park has also started a voluntourism initiative of its own, and a number of other National Parks work with tour operators, convention & visitors bureaus, concessionaires, hoteliers, and nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S., including:
- Yosemite National Park (California) – Conservation VIP
- Glen Canyon National Park (Arizona) – Trash Tracker & Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas
- Saguaro National Park (Arizona) – Friends Of Saguaro National Park
- Everglades National Park (Florida) – Mandarin Oriental
As part of the U.S. National Parks effort to prepare for its 2016 centennial, a “‘VolunTourism’ Feasibility Study” was initiated in October 2008. This has sparked additional interest in reviewing the potential of VolunTourism in the Parks. To further the discussion on this subject, on 30 May, 2009, three students (Katie Vatterrodt, Meghan Karschnia, and Vangshetta Her) from the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota, posted a powerpoint presentation on VolunTourism. The presentation served, in part, to demonstrate the potential of this type of travel within the context of U.S. National Parks – both the challenges and opportunities.
With the confluence of the 2016 National Parks Centennial, U.S. Travelers’ desire to visit National Parks, and the growing emphasis on volunteering in the U.S., VolunTourism may well become a strategic approach by which the U.S. National Parks engage visitors in stewardship of these historic and national treasures.
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